Agriculture

History is littered with good intentions gone bad and concerns are growing the Government’s recently released draft Murray Darling Basin Plan is a prime example.

Frontline environmentalists, who live and work with the vagaries of the rivers, are warning that the Government is heading down the wrong track and could be responsible for allowing wetlands, which not even the worst drought in living memory could kill, to be severely damaged as a result of over-watering.

If we have above average rainfall over the next 12 months the world’s largest river red gum forest is facing the very real prospect of being degraded within three years of it being declared a national park, and two years before the Federal Government has signed off on an environmental watering plan.

Continue reading "Water, water, everywhere and all the trees will shrink" »

Bob Katter gave a press conference today, to announce that he may or may not form a new party. In the end, that was hardly the point.

If the independent member for Kennedy was sketchy on the details of his immediate political future, he was as forthright as a charging bull on his concern for the future of the Australian economy, a concern the nation’s leaders appear to have forgotten.

As usual this week, our leaders are banging on about big picture crap. Gillard is flogging her dead horse of a carbon tax, Abbott’s busy telling us the sky is falling under the weight of asylum seekers, while Bob Brown continues to rail against everything except the destruction of the trees he was originally elected to protect.

Continue reading "If this hatter’s mad then invite me to the party" »

Are we a nation of Akubra-wearing graziers? Of rough and ready carnival operators? Sponge cake bakers called Joan? Or a collection of young mothers pushing strollers festooned with Show bags ?

The truth is we are all these people and more. For the tens of thousands of people who arrive into Australia and settle in Sydney each year, the Sydney Royal Easter Show may be their first experience of the real Australia.

The Show is so big and diverse it is almost impossible to describe. But once you have experienced the Show, you know what it means - it gets under your skin.

Continue reading "Hooves, horns and helium - the Show must go on" »

The release of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s guide to the Basin Plan has ignited discussion about how we manage this critical system for the long term. It has been disappointing to see over recent weeks the Coalition now walking away from reform in the basin, reform that even the previous Howard Government saw as necessary.

Coalition members are now arguing that taking action in the basin will be tantamount to choosing the environment over rural communities. This argument is based on a false dichotomy. Reforming the Murray Darling system is not a choice between the interests of producers and the environment- reform is in the interest of all those who rely on this vital river system, to secure its long-term health and viability. Indeed the aim of the Water Act is to manage our water resources in such a way as to optimise environmental, economic and social outcomes.

The worst thing that could happen for everyone in the Basin, whether it’s someone who cares about the environmental assets of the river system or a farmer wanting to continue to make a sustainable living, is for the Government to do nothing. An unmanaged and unhealthy water supply is no use to anyone.

Continue reading "Opposing river reform puts us on a slow boat to nowhere" »

Lost in the aftershocks of the home insulation scandal is a story with deadly implications for beef farming in Australia.

A Senate inquiry is underway into a decision to lift the ban on importing beef from countries tainted by mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

From next Monday, beef from countries like the US, Canada, Britain and other European nations will enter Australia, without being subject to the usual import risk assessments.

Continue reading "The threat to Aussie steak" »

As a farmer it is my duty to let backyard chook fanciers in on a secret. No chook ever died in credit. That’s why the only chooks that have ever been on our farm have been dead, plucked and ready to cook.

Chooks as pets are the flavour of the month. They are small, they eat leftovers and the eggs they lay are delicious, making them ideal pets for inner-city backyards.

But if you look at the economics, each egg will cost many times more than the amount you pay for a barn-laid dozen and food producers don’t provide homes for poultry or livestock that doesn’t earn its keep.

Continue reading "Chooks lull us into false sense of food security" »

Agriculture Minister Tony Burke claimed as an observer to the G8 Agriculture Minister’s meeting in Europe that “Australia has a major role to play in meeting the global food shortage and boosting global food security … we believe investment in agricultural research will be essential”.

Fast forward to the Budget and we find that the Rudd Government cut the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry budget by $908 million or 32 percent. Included in the cuts was the axing of the research body Land and Water Australia, 312 jobs cut and a $35.877 million cut to the Quarantine and Bio-security program.

Cutting the agriculture research budget is unforgivable – but cutting the quarantine budget is criminal. The Rudd Government’s legacy will include disease, deficits and debt.

Continue reading "Where’s the stimulus cash for our food producers?" »